Anno 1800: The Board Game

Aim and setup: Each player takes a home island and places 4 farmers, 3 workers, and 2 artisans in its residential districts. Put 1 trade token on each of two merchant ships and 1 exploration token on the exploration ship. Each player starts with 7 farmer/worker population cards and 2 artisan/engineer/investor cards. Set out five objective cards and the supply of resources and construction tokens. The game supports 2–4 players; the highest influence total wins. (English rulebook, printed pp. 1–3, 11)

Turn structure: Starting with the first player, players take turns clockwise and perform one main action: expand, play a population card, swap population cards, increase the workforce, upgrade, open the Old World, explore the New World, take expedition cards, or celebrate a festival. Activating played population cards and available objective-card effects is free, subject to their resource requirements; Alonso Graves, Aarhant, and The Editor can each be used at most once per turn. (Printed pp. 4, 12–13, 16)

Production and exhaustion: To produce a resource, move a population cube from its residential district to a free workplace that matches its tier. This immediately produces the depicted resource once, and the resource must be used during the same turn. A cube on a workplace does not produce again. If an action directly requires a population cube or naval token, move it to the exhausted area. Components on workplaces or in the exhausted area cannot be reused until refreshed by spending gold or holding a festival. (Printed pp. 4–5)

Trade and shift end: A player may trade for a resource if another player owns an industry that can produce it and the active player has enough trade tokens. Farmer/worker resources cost 1 trade token, artisan resources cost 2, and engineer resources cost 3. The other player cannot refuse and receives 1 gold from the supply. A player cannot trade with themselves, and the same resource may be traded only once per turn, though different resources may be traded separately. New World island resources, population cubes, and exploration tokens cannot be traded. During a turn, gold may be spent to return used population cubes to their residential districts for immediate reuse. (Printed pp. 5, 16)

Expand: An expand action builds 1 industry or shipyard and may also build as many ships as the player has shipyards. Industries go on land, shipyards on coastal land, and ships on sea spaces. Each shipyard may build at most 1 ship per action, at or below its strength; the ship immediately receives the corresponding naval tokens. Normally, a player may have only one of each industry; an Old World island benefit may grant a duplicate. New tokens may cover built or pre-printed tokens; covered tokens return to the supply, and population cubes on them become exhausted. Under the first-edition errata, only 1 built token may be removed during an expand action. (Printed pp. 6, 16; Kosmos first-edition errata)

Population cards: Produce the resources shown in a card’s purple bar before playing it face up below the home island. Each card has a one-time effect that may be activated for free during the current or a later turn. After activation, turn the card face down; it stays in the player area and still scores influence. To swap cards, return up to 3 hand cards under their respective stacks, then draw the same number from those stacks. A card type cannot be swapped if its stack is empty. (Printed p. 7)

Increase the workforce and upgrade: The workforce action adds up to 3 population cubes. Pay the resources shown above the relevant residential district for each new cube and draw its corresponding population card. If that stack is empty, pay the indicated gold for each card that cannot be drawn; if unable to pay, the corresponding increase cannot be made. An upgrade action may make up to 3 adjacent tier changes in order: farmer → worker → artisan → engineer → investor. Replace each cube with one of the new tier; upgrades do not increase the total number of cubes, so no population card is drawn. If the cube was on a workplace, the replacement remains there. (Printed pp. 8, 16)

Opening the two worlds: Each action opens or explores at most 1 island, and each island type is counted separately. A player may have at most 4 Old World islands and 4 New World islands. Their first, second, third, and fourth island of the same type cost 1, 2, 3, and 4 exhausted exploration tokens respectively. An Old World island adds spaces and a one-time benefit. Exploring the New World adds an island to the player area and draws 3 New World cards. Use a resource from one’s own New World island by exhausting 1 trade token; these resources cannot be traded from another player, and no construction tokens may be built on New World islands. (Printed pp. 9, 16)

Expeditions and festivals: Take expedition cards by exhausting 2 exploration tokens to draw up to 3 cards and place them face down below the home island. They are not hand cards and may be viewed at any time. At the end of the game, use eligible population cubes to fill animal or artifact spaces on expeditions; each cube can fill only 1 space, each occupied space scores separately, and cards need not be fully occupied. A festival returns every population cube and naval token from workplaces and the exhausted area to residential districts or ships. (Printed pp. 10–11, 16)

End and scoring: When a player plays their last hand card, they take the fireworks token. Finish the current round so everyone has the same number of turns, then play one final round. Population cards score whether face up or down: farmer/worker cards are worth 3 points, artisan/engineer/investor cards 8, and New World cards 5. Score occupied expedition spaces, 1 point per 3 gold, 7 points for the fireworks token, and objective cards. Ties go first to the player with the most industries, shipyards, and ships (uncovered pre-printed tokens count), then the fewest hand cards; any further tie is shared. (Printed pp. 10–12)

Errata applied: This entry incorporates the public file Kosmos labels as first-edition errata. It clarifies that an expand action can remove at most 1 built token; only an Old World island benefit can grant a duplicate identical industry, while an alternative starting industry is not identical; players can trade different resources with different players in one turn, but each resource can be traded only once per turn; and shipyard strengths cannot be combined to build a stronger ship. Apply these clarifications in those situations. (Kosmos first-edition errata, p. 1; rulebook printed p. 6)

Source scope: The rulebook cover lists Martin Wallace, 2–4 players, and ages 12 and up; its last-page identifier is 680428-VE-18032021-GB. Kosmos’s product page separately lists solo-mode material and a later expansion, neither of which is covered here. No standalone base-game FAQ was found while checking the official product page and the Thames & Kosmos manual index; this describes the scope of this search, not proof that the publisher has never offered other answers.